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Gamer Block April 2017 Review

Last year for Christmas, I bought Abe a 6 month subscription to one of our favorite old subscription boxes, Nerd Block. It had been a while since we purchased any sub boxes, and after the fire last year, we found ourselves needing to replace a lot of our awesome, geeky, little goodies.

I have majorly slacked on reviews and postings, but will say he was pretty happy with the last several boxes he received. A neat option for the Nerd Block subscription, is that you can switch to another one of their many boxes to try something new out for a month or two. The first four boxes he kept as Classic Blocks, and for April he switched for the Gamer Block M for Mature box. Next Month is his last box unless we choose to renew, and he has already switched that for a Sci Fi Block.

I thought it would be a good idea to have him take over and review the box for you guys, since I was not interested in this block at all. Like, not even a little bit. The print included in this month’s box majorly creeps me out, I have already requested that it not be displayed where I might accidentally see it for fear of the nightmares that would follow!

*heebie jeebies!*

Anyway, I will let Abe take over here and tell you what he thinks of this month’s box! 🙂

Hello bloggers?… bloggies? ….readers. As previously mentioned my name is Abe and I am the old man of the family. Dad, husband, and full time taxi service are my occupation. I also happen to have a another job where I do IT work for a large local corporation. I have been cajoled into reviewing this box, I am not much of a writer so my sincerest apologies before you dive into the train wreck that is to follow.

First off, unlike the Classic Block, they do not set a theme for the Gamer Block. You can, however, can go to the Nerd Block website and they will tell you some of the brands and franchises that will be included in the block to help you decide if you want it or not. Before I switched I researched the next block and found out that it would include Blizzard and Fallout items. It mentioned a few others that I am not a big fan of, but those two specifically were what sealed it for me. I could just imagine the awesome Fallout or Blizzard shirt they would be including and had to give it a shot.

Unfortunately, the shirt was a Tekken shirt which, while I do recognize the game, it is not a franchise or genre I am overly fond of. Luckily the shirt is well made, the design doesn’t scream “Tekken”, and it fits well. Overall, I would say the shirt was one of the few wins in the box, it is one of the few non black shirts they have sent me.

While the print doesn’t give me the creeps, I will say that this is tied for the worst item in the box (more on the other later). This is a screen from the classic game Metroid, a game I have never really played. The quality of the print is sub-par in my opinion. There have been many Metroid games, some even with amazing graphics and art. It is kind of a cop out to use an old 8 or 16 bit screen cap as the “print”. I suppose there may be some fans of this style, but it is not me. This was quickly given away to one of the boys, and I am sure it will be forgotten and trashed at some point.

Finally an item I can get excited about! Blizzard has always been one of my favorite video game developers and I have been an avid fan and player of their products since the late 90s. These little blind boxes can be found in stores and they are not cheap, so I was excited to get one. The character is not important for this review (though it was Tyrande if you are curious), but it is well made and I was happy with the way it looked. One knock I would give to at least the character I got is that would not stand up on its own which makes displaying it difficult at best.

This was probably the second best item in here for me (yes it is a sticker if that tells you anything about my overall feeling on the box). I am a fan of Fallout and have played every game since the first. I can always find a place for a nice, well made decal.

Every Game M block comes with a free download for a specific game on Steam. This months download is the other item that is tied for the worst in the box, a 16 bit retro style game called Camp Sunshine. I kind of like the way they package the download in a retro style video game box, but lets be honest, these will probably be thrown away by most people and doesn’t add any real value to the box.

I have downloaded and played about an hour of the game. My overall impression is it is a lazy attempt to ride the coattails of the wildly popular Five Nights at Freddies series and has nothing really new, innovative, or in my opinion, interesting to offer the horror game genre. That one hour is probably all I will ever play of that game. For reference I don’t switch games quickly and I am willing to pay up for a game that I really like. This is not a game I would have ever bought for myself and my brief test run in it just affirmed that belief.

I am not a Halo fan and have never even played a Halo game, however I am a huge book nerd and I will most likely read this all the way through. This book seems to be aimed more at the older teen audience which is fine. I have many books aimed at that demographic.

I am a little bummed I switched to this box for the month as there were really only 2 items in it that I really liked. Overall I have been happy with my Nerd Block subscription, and I feel like I usually get a really good value for what they cost. This box is definitely the exception, even if I thoroughly liked all of the items, I kind of feel like more should have been included to get the value to a point where this box would be “worth it”. I also think they should just give you a 10$ steam gift certificate, (the supposed value of the game included) that way you can get a game you would for sure enjoy.

Breakdown of my estimated value:

T-Shirt: 10$

Print: 1$ (honestly I would probably give this 0$ I could print something out on my printer and enjoy it more)

Blizzard Blind Box: 10$ (this is what they are selling for right now retail)

Fallout Decal: 2$

Camp Sunshine: 10$ (I currently play FREE games that are 100% more fun than this)

Halo Paper Back: 10$

So this box had a total retail value of 42$ which in general seems kind of a low end value for what you get in most of these subscription boxes. Most people consider a 15$ value above the price of a subscription box the low end of what you should expect. Even if I liked every item in the box this one just wouldn’t make the cut.

Until next time

Abe…

Well, there you have it! An honest review for the intended “nerd” recipient. I will say, Abe was majorly bummed by this box, which very rarely happens with his Nerd Block subscription. As with all sub boxes, each month will vary greatly, and you will definitely have boxes that you love more than others.

Stay tuned for more reviews!

As a reminder, we were not paid or compensated in any way for this review, and we paid for this subscription with our own money. All opinions are our own and honest, letting you know what you can expect from companies before investing your hard earned cash!